Monday, March 31, 2014

March Round-Up

It is already the end of March. Is this crazy to anyone else, or just me? Race season is approaching rapidly and I'm starting to freak out - OHGODI'MNOTREADYINEEDMORETIMETOTRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm just accepting that the first few races of my season (Cherry Creek Sneak, Dino Half-Marathon, random duathlon if I do it) are going to be nothing special and are going to be used to just get myself back in the feel of racing. Maybe I can start taking stuff seriously by the BolderBOULDER ...

Anyway, numbers!

Running: 28.35 mi
Swimming: 5100m (3.17 mi)
Cycling: 50.35 mi
Lifting: four sessions (1:35)
Other: two walks (1:25), one stretching session (:13), one hike (30:00)

My rolled-over-from-February goal this month of strength went pretty well, I think. I'm back to consistently running three days a week (and am also slowly starting to increase my mileage). I'm swimming once to twice a week and riding about the same.

Did I do something not S/B/R related? Yes! It took until the last day of the month (again), but Brandon and I went on a hike (you'll read about it a week from Wednesday).

Am I strength-training regularly? Yep. Still going once a week.

Am I injury-free? Thankfully, yes.

My initial goal for April was to build speed, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet, unfortunately. So, the plan instead is to just to keep building on what I did in March. I'd like to:

- try and add in a second lift per week. I'm loving the weights right now ...
- keep with the trend of the last few weeks and keep swimming twice a week (and if I can add in more, great)
- stick with my three runs/week. My body likes this.
- add in a second ride per week CONSISTENTLY.

I'd ideally also like my non-S/B/R activity to NOT happen on the last day of the month for a change ...

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

3/17-3/23: Double Swim Week

I want to start out by saying I did actually sit down to write a blog post Monday. I did. I just didn't have anything to say. My head was filled with Ironman thoughts thanks to several MX12 teammates finishing IM Melbourne after a long journey. It made me want nothing more than to do another IM - even though I know it's impossible this year and we're going to stick to that 2016 goal no matter how much it kills us - but I didn't want to write a post just about me whining that I miss IM training and having a huge goal and suffering over the course of a day.

(No, I'll just leave that to a paragraph.)

Instead, I just decided to not blog. Figured it was the better option.

Now that that's out of the way, last week's featured workout.

Last week I had my first double swim week since before the shingles disaster. It wasn't a lot - 1700m between the two - but still! I swam twice!

The first swim was kind of a disaster - had to cut it short due to feeling horribly nauseous - a feeling that ended up lasting until I had to go to bed. The second, though, was much better.

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Rocking that TYR Sports swimsuit! With the awkwardly huge selfie arm.

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The bottom picture is the story of a triathlete at the pool. Fins, paddles and pull buoy with my goggles and cap next to my lock and the shoes I wore (and would lift in later on).

Other Week Highlights:
- Three run week!
- Sunday was another three-a-day
- Outside ride

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

3/10-3/16: From Snow to Sun

We're currently in spring in Colorado, which means the weather is schizophrenic. Take the featured workouts from last week.

Tuesday, March 11: Run.

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Pre-run ... when I was still excited.

I'm not doing runs of any significant length right now (well, compared to IMAZ training) so last Tuesday's run was only supposed to be 1.5-2 miles. Yeeahh, I made it a mile. The weather, while hard to tell from the photo, was MISERABLE. Snowy, windy, wet, frozen ... I was absolutely miserable and pulled the plug because I knew that, due to my misery, I was getting nothing out of the run.

That brings us to ...

Friday, March 14: Bike.

Both of us wanted to ride outside but neither of us really felt like tackling the hell hill near the house (I know, despite my New Year's Resolution - but Brandon has barely ridden this year). So, we decided to drive to the Platte trail and ride it a bit.

I felt great on the bike - Brandon couldn't keep up with me and I wasn't even big-ringing it (kept it in a moderate gear and a high (low-90s) cadence) which NEVER happens. We kept the ride short - to the Hudson Gardens café and back - but it was a great ride. And warm, too.

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Shadows.

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It was so nice that I ended up taking off the jacket for the return trip back to the car. From snow to sun; that's Colorado spring in a nutshell. Sometimes within a few hours; sometimes within a few days; sometimes within the same week. Keeps you on your training toes, that's for sure.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Things I Love: TYR Sport Swimsuits

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! It was a gorgeous day, so we went out for a ride. Gorgeous ... until the ridiculous wind kicked up.

Anyway, that's not what today's post is about. Today is another in the "Things I Love" series ... which means, as a reminder, I am not sponsored by TYR (though if they want to change that, I'm all for it). I just love their swimsuits.

As a triathlete, I swim. Not as much as I probably should, but still a decent amount. Therefore, I obviously need a swimsuit. I also have a weirdly long torso, so I prefer two-piece suits as they fit better (I also seriously cannot remember how to squeeze my body into a one-piece. I tried a few years back; it was awkwardly awful and also, looking back on it, hilarious).

The brand that I keep coming back to - especially now because I know how their suits fit on my body - is TYR Sport. I've owned four suits by them - two of the exact same (the middle in the photo below). I love the fit, the durability and the option for fun prints.

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Completely fun, right? The one on the left was, quite possibly, the first swimsuit I bought for triathlon purposes. As mentioned above, I had two versions of the middle - stretched out the top. The one on the right is my newest that I just got and it is bright and happy and AWESOME.

The suits are comfortable and last for ... if I had to estimate, about 50 miles worth of pool swimming (based off wear of my last suit and last season's usage). They're relatively affordably priced and I love how I can just go with a size and know that it's going to fit my body. For a female who typically wears two different sizes on her top and bottom, that is an extremely helpful thing.

So. If you swim or are looking to get into it (or know someone who is) and need a new suit, maybe try out a suit by TYR.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

3/3-3/9 - Back on the Trainer

Work has been kicking my ass lately (last Friday, Sunday and Monday especially) which means I've been exhausted which also explains why I haven't blogged this week. Oops.

I also don't have too horribly much to say - haven't been doing a whole lot since I got a cold/allergy-something after the shingles nightmare - but! I did get back on the trainer again last Saturday.

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It was 18 minutes and it was embarrassingly hard, but I have to start somewhere. I've been on again since then and while it was about the same length, it did go a bit easier. I know the strength is still there; it's just buried under a lot of laziness.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

2/24-3/2: Powder Day

While I'm still afflicted with itchy hell (shingles), I'm starting to work out again. As you may have read in my monthly recap, we went skiing last Friday. We're not 100% sure, but pretty positive it was the first time we'd been in about five years. In any case, I don't think we've been since we've been married.

We drove up to Winter Park the morning of the 28th, got our lift tickets, rented demo skis (if we were going to do this, we were going to go all out) and then got ready to ski.

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It was snowing when we started out, but it soon cleared up. We parked at the base of Mary Jane and busted our butts over to Vasquez Ridge to start our day ... which was a genius idea because very few people were on that side of the resort. A few runs, we carved our own path in six inches of fresh powder.

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Brandon almost biffing it.

We had a lot of fun getting used to skis again and getting used to the powder. Most people love powder - "OMG powder! Woo!" - but the reality is, unless you're actually a pretty decent skier, powder is rough to ski in. It takes completely different muscles to ski in it and ski in it well. Luckily, even though both of us haven't skied in years, we both grew up doing it, so it wasn't bad.

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One of the best parts of the day happened early on while on a lift on Vasquez - one of the guys  we were sharing the quad with said that he saw us tearing down the mountain - going "a million miles per hour" (it felt like it, too) and that we must be in really good shape. We're not really in shape right now - totally had the post-IM weight gain - but it's really nice to know that either we've retained some fitness or at least it looks like we have.

After spending an hour or so at Vasquez, we moved over to the actual mountain of Winter Park for a bit. We had a mid-morning snack at the base (and I had some delicious Skratch) and then we skied the main mountain for a bit before snagging lunch at Snoasis. Mmm, crappy resort food.

After that, we busted our butts over to Mary Jane so we could hit up Parsenn Bowl before the lift closed. Operation: success.

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After the Bowl, we continued skiing the Jane a bit. Tried a few moguls - I still kind of remember how to handle them, but I definitely don't have the confidence (or the leg/stabilizer strength) to do them anymore. Maybe if I skied more often ...

As it got later in the day, I had to start pausing on runs due to pain in my quads. That's another thing - if we did this more often, I will definitely need to up the leg strength, particularly the stabilizing muscles so I don't screw up a knee.

We quit about an hour before lift close - I took my first tumble and Brandon took another so we figured it was time. We changed, turned in our rentals and then enjoyed a very well-deserved beer.

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It only took me 27ish years after I started skiing to enjoy après-ski.

The day was a ton of fun and we both decided that we'd maybe like to try and do this more often next year - maybe get a lift ticket four-pack. Since we both work non-traditional jobs, we can go up mid-week and avoid the crowds (ideal; our longest wait that day for a lift was maybe two minutes) which is so much more enjoyable.

However, if we do decide to ski a bit more, I hope we do it when we're back in shape so we don't always end up like we did that night at the hotel.

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Monday, March 3, 2014

February Round-Up

Once again, copping out on the Monday blog with the monthly recap. However, I will have a fun Wednesday blog, so yay for that.

Explanations later. Now, numbers:

Running: 12.85 mi
Swimming: 1600m (1 mi)
Cycling: 8.81 mi
Lifting: five sessions (1h56)
Other: two walks (1h22), one day skiing (4h45)

Due to the shingles I got, February's goal of strength kind of fell by the wayside, unfortunately. Still, you gotta roll with what life gives you and I've been doing my best ... even though I'm still itchy with spots all over my side. Fading spots, but still.

Did I do something not S/B/R related? Yes! It took until the last day of February, but we went skiing and it was fabulous.

Am I strength-training regularly? Yes! Still averaging once a week.

Am I injury-free? ... shingles isn't technically an injury, so we'll say yes.

March isn't starting out super well (slight cold; I blame the husband), but we'll transfer February's goal of strength to March. I've got to get base-building again ... especially since two of those races on the tentative schedule are now official - the Dino Half-Marathon and Harvest Moon Long Course.